


A New Holiday

by chien



Category: Motorcity
Genre: Fantasy AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-03
Updated: 2012-09-03
Packaged: 2017-11-13 11:18:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/502958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chien/pseuds/chien
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ficlet written to respond to this anonymous prompt: "AU where Julie has her own castle, Texas is the guard constantly trying to watch over her, Dutch is the inventer moding catapults, Chuck is an apprentice magician and Mike is the knight who always bothers Chuck to ask him to do cool tricks because he's bored and is trying to drop hints that they should totally be doing it like rabbits."</p>
            </blockquote>





	A New Holiday

Dutch shook his head slowly when he heard the approaching clanging that meant the queen's bodyguard was rapidly on his way over to bring, of course, the bad news. Stepping back from his latest piece of work, the inventor quickly drew a large canvas sheet over the model of, what was to be, his most innovative piece of machinery yet.

 _Thud, thud, thud_ \-- Texas's metallic shell shrieked noisily with each heavy step as he loosely jogged over, puffing his cheeks in and out. "Dutch, Dutch! Texas requires your assistance--" the front of his helmet swung shut and cut him off when he dug his feet down into the dirt, sliding to a stop a few inches away from the worktable in the middle of Dutch's outdoor workshop. Regrettably, Dutch stepped protectively in front of the model catapult and cursed himself. If Texas-- who was 200 pounds of muscle and metal-- had been unable to stop, there was no saving the model in the first place. Wincing at the thought, Dutch shook his head. While everyone praised him as the most brilliant engineer of all the lands, he had a nagging feeling that being around Texas made him less brilliant, somehow.

The personal guard of Queen Julie threw his head back to get his mask out of his face instead of simply shoving it up with his hands-- he always took what he felt was the most "Texas" way of getting anything done. Impatiently, Dutch planted his hand on the scratchy surface of his workbench and leaned onto it. Something very important to Texas was up-- and hopefully he will stick to only talking about that, and not try to Texas-ify the fireball-hurling moat-apult.

"Dutch, the princess--" " _Queen_ ," Dutch corrected with an irritated look-- Julie fought hard to take control of their kingdom, and fought even harder to bring it to the much more preferable state it was currently in-- she deserved the respect of the title she had earned.

Texas gawked at him and shrugged, "That's what Texas said! Anyway, Jules somehow managed to do the impossible again-- she got out of my sight and now I can't find her, but there's all these royal things that she's gotta do! Everybody's yelling at me as if I can just  _magic_  her out of thin air-- I ain't no scrawny magician!" Rolling his eyes dramatically, Texas propped his heavily gloved hand onto his metallic skirt and poorly imitated their noble queen, "Texas, I know that as the queen everybody's out to kill me and that I depend on your punch-sticks to defend the entire realm from disaster. Still, I'm gonna make your one job really frickin' hard by vanishing all the time to do my Julie-things instead of sitting on my throne where I can be properly watched!"

"Uh... huh." Dutch touched the bottom of his chin fondly-- it was a completely inaccurate depiction of Julie, of course, but he admitted that a splash of Texas in his day kept things interesting. "Well, I'm sure that Queen Julie probably is doing something worth cancelling a day's worth of stuffy meetings-- have you thought about checking the town square? I think she mentioned something at yesterday's feast about some sort of celebration she was pulling together? ' _Real urgent, real important_ ,' was what she said. Aren't those keywords that are supposed to scream, 'Hey Texas!  _Pay attention_!'"

The broad-chested guard tried to cross his arms in defiance, but couldn't-- too much clunky metal in the way. Dutch had warned him about pazazzling his armor, but Texas wasn't much of a listener. "H-hey! I knew that! In fact, I'm going to go there now, pronto!" Attempting to make himself look ready for business, Texas slapped down the front of his helmet and struck a ridiculous action pose-- or attempted to, because the heavy weight of his broadsword threw him off balance during his kick.

Dutch hopped out of the way, heart heavy, and closed his eyes when he heard the crunch of his meticulously hand-made model from being crashed into by the bull-like tackle of the queen's personal guard.

\---

"Mikey, I got 'real important' business to do right now--  _Jules_  has me on a quest!" he squeaked, smiling widely. Mike settled his square jaw into his leather-clad hands and tilted his head warmly. "Oh yeah? So what kind of quests do court magicians go on? Anything like the quests knights go on?"

" _Apprentice_  court magician-- I don't want Jacob thinking I'm getting cocky and am trying to force him into retirement, haha!" Immediately, Chuck turned red and threw a hand over his mouth. "I don't know what I'm saying, I didn't mean that!"

"Got it, got it-- relax, buddy, I'm just teasing you." He leaned across the side of the cold, stony stairs he had been relaxing on and reached down to tug at a lock of Chuck's hair. His best friend slapped his hand away with a laugh and then proceeded to continue gathering up the mess of scrolls he had spilled onto the steps.

"Alright, thanks. And no, it's nothing like your quests-- I'm not gonna gallop off to some faraway land on my noble steed to slay some dragons-- but it's still a quest. A very special one, and I take these things very seriously." He tapped his chin for a second, and quickly added, "Though I wouldn't mind if people would take my jobs just as seriously as your jobs-- there's some serious benefits to rake in from being a knight." Squeezing the bundle tight against his chest, Chuck accidentally popped one of the scrolls out of his arms. At first Mike thought he swore, but instead he abused his powers a little to call it back to him.

Chuck patted the scroll back in with the rest of them and started a quick descent towards his private work chambers that was situated many levels below the royal archives. Following him, Mike hopped over the railing and used the momentum to throw himself down, down, down each story until he realized he accidentally passed Chuck up when he found himself on the lowest floor.

Panting, Chuck stumbled down the stairs to catch up to the knight-- unnecessary, but a habit of his that was hard to break after spending their lives together side by side. It was really hard on the both of them whenever Mike was away for campaigns. "See," he cried out between coughs, stabbing the rough iron key blindly into the keyhole-- the scrolls poking him in his eyes, nose, chin, and neck-- until it scraped into the opening, "that kind of stuff-- I'm sure it gets you all the right attention."

The scrolls spilled out across his stone desk, and a few of them unfurled magically with a somewhat worrisome crackling sound. Mike knew the drill-- finger oils, spit, all sorts of other gross human things were all dangerous to aged parchment. Magic was probably the best way to pry them open while maintaining their preserved states.

"Well, sure I guess it does get me into trouble sometimes when I'm out and about. People mistake me for some kind of hot-headed hooligan," which was really fairly far from the truth. There wasn't a knight out there with a cleaner record than Sir Mike Chilton-- inside their kingdom's walls, everyone knew him to be a hero. Chuck's best friend, the greatest hero of their time.

The apprentice magician sighed as he slumped over the ancient scrolls, rapidly taking notes on a fresh piece of parchment at the same time. "Yeah, but at least people notice you." Realizing how self-deprecating that sounded, he tried to wave off his own dismissal of his worth. "I mean, I know that everyone knows that I do important work around here as the apprentice court magician. It just would be nice to, yanno, feel appreciated. People don't throw parades for me, but you-- everytime you come home, it's like a holiday around here."

These words twisted Mike up inside, and he felt his hand grip tightly at the fine mail that covered his chest. This was the first time he was back in many months, and he made sure to see Chuck first before reporting back to his own queen. There was not much else that Mike looked forward to more when coming home, because seeing Chuck was what made this stony castle home in the first place.

"Chuck, you--" he slid around to the side of the desk that Chuck was on, but Chuck was hiding behind his bangs as he intensely traveled around the perimeter of the desk to read scroll after scroll. "Hey, the people that you care about most-- Jules, Tex, Dutch, Jacob, and I-- we all appreciate your work more than we can really express." He felt silly chasing Chuck around like this-- but at the same time, this struck up a weird sensation within him. The only way he could describe it was the growing excitement a dog has when it realizes it could chase its tail but never catch it without hurting himself.

He felt dangerously playful, and the pink on the tips of Chuck's ears spurred him on. Chuck was listening, he was just too embarrassed to admit that Mike's generous compliments pleased him. He didn't always take compliments well.

In one quick movement, Mike pinned Chuck against the table-- the swift movement blowing many of the thin scrolls right off the edge, though he knew that a few probably were being crushed by Chuck's back. The hollow sound of the rolled up pieces of parchment bouncing on the polished floor echoed throughout the deeply quiet chamber.

"Maybe," he suggested, his tongue tracing his upper teeth-- he took pleasure in seeing Chuck's eyes follow the movement, "You need to be reminded in a more forward way?" Below him, Chuck sputtered. His bared face-- due to his bangs having fallen to the sides of his head-- was clearly turning progressively more pink as the meaning of what Mike was suggesting started to sink in.

Dangerously, slowly, Mike ducked his face closer to Chuck's-- enjoying the adorable scattered freckles across his best friend's face-- all the while lowering his lightly armored body to settle firmly against Chuck's robe-covered body.

\---

She wasn't much of a crown-wearing-kind-of-queen. Julie sat cross-legged on the border of a drippy, neglected fountain in the middle of the town square. She was shaded by the statue of a man she once knew-- a statue that was so unkempt, it had been covered by green growths that made the silhouette of the stone carving unclear. That didn't matter to her subjects though. They clearly remembered the jagged details hacked out of the rock as well as they remembered the man the cut-up stone was meant to represent.

Still, certain occasions called for some formality. The studded circle of twisted gold was hidden beneath the heavy hood she had laid upon her head. Anxiously, she awaited the signal from Claire that meant all the preparations were in place. She didn't have to squirm that much longer-- through the crowds of people involved in the regular market around this statue, she saw a familiar face.

Claire gave her a wink, and mouthed, "Good luck!"

Julie sucked in a deep breath and tried to control her shaky legs as she stood up on the edge of the fountain. She hadn't been queen that long-- at least, she didn't feel that it was that long. So much had happened in the past few years after she was able to overthrow her father's totalitarian rule. This was a day for celebration and not self-doubt, she reminded herself. 

The young queen unsheathed the royal sword and held it up proudly, letting her hood fall back from her head as she looked up with glittering eyes as the tip skirted the tips of the sun above her.

"People of Delvyrius, I have come to welcome a new day of celebration for our calendars!" she felt her voice grow stronger as she went on-- the adrenaline driving the fear out of her as she continued her speech. "My beloved subjects, you have all been through very much. I am eternally grateful that you have accepted me as your queen and helped me raise our kingdom from the ashes, despite being the kin of the man who had brought you so much suffering." She bowed generously, and the growing mass of people assembling around her reacted tenderly to her gesture.

"Many years ago, this man-- my father, King Abraham Kane-- was brought down by the combined efforts of his downtrodden people to rescue him and this great country from his own madness. It was with your assistance that we were able to rally enough troops to storm my own castle to stop the endless onslaught of pain that he had bestowed upon us all." There were nods throughout the sea of faces-- the pained expressions of many reminded Julie that her father's betrayal hurt more than just her and her mother. They had all given him their love and devotion, not knowing that someday he would succumb to darkness and turn their generous loyalty against him.

She looked upon her people and let her sorrow glance across her face for just a moment, before she continued. "I would dare not hold a blade against my own father's throat," she dragged the sharp edge of her sword against the rough surface of the statue, dragging layers of moss with it, "however, he was no longer my father that day we finally broke into the heavily guarded throne room." With a flashy flick, the sharp sound of the blade nicking the statue's neck hung in the air.

More familiar faces appeared in the crowd-- she saw a mop of brown hair hovering near a mess of blonde. Chuck gave her a thumbs up, and Mike did too-- though he winced when he lifted his arm up at her. They both looked a bit worn out, and it made her laugh a bit on the inside-- calming her. She saw the way Mike shrugged at Chuck apologetically while rubbing his shoulder-- clearly, he had been punched for something. Chuck's face was red with... anger? No, embarrassment.

Her friends-- reliable and always there for her-- have not changed from the hard, long years they went through together growing up. Dutch was hard to miss, his characteristic hairstyle bobbing over the heads of other people until he had managed to bring himself close to the front of the crowd, Texas close behind him. Her personal guard scrambled noisily up to stand near her by the fountain, settling down respectfully on one knee next to her. She smiled. Without them-- without everyone in the kingdom, in fact-- they wouldn't be standing here knowing that better times were ahead.

Queen Julie hopped off the front of the neglected fountain, arms outstretched genially as she recounted what happened after they had retaken their land. They rebuilt, and over time-- deep wounds began to heal. Her father was a madman, but not a murderer-- he took care of his people well during his crazed years,  but at the expense of their freedom. King Kane was put away to recover, but stood trial eventually. He was moved to tears by the forgiveness of his people, who were exceptionally generous in determining his sentence.

They re-established themselves as a nation amongst other great powers, and grew as a country. So much had happened during these short years, and everyone had been so busy that there hadn't been time for a proper celebration. Now was the time, however, as today was a very special day. First, the face of the town needed to be adjusted accordingly. As Julie had walked forward, she pushed the crowd back with her speech and gestures. Her friends had silently slipped behind her, till they had eventually moved the spectators a great distance away from the stony blemish that had been erected during the worst times in the middle of the town square.

With an excited grin, Julie swung her sword up to the sky again and screamed, "To new beginnings!" On her cue, all the way back at a castle, Dutch's assistant let loose a flaming bundle that sailed through the afternoon sky. The crowd startled as the ball changed colors-- sparkling magnificently as it cut through the air. It crashed into the fountain with an explosion of noise, light, and colored smoke that rushed through the corridors that connected the heart of the town to the various districts of the capital city. There was much confusion as the tingly smoke wafted through the audience, but as it cleared they found that petals began to rain from above.

A new silhouette could be seen emerging from the billowing, colored smoke-- dotted by dancing sparkles of light. The putrid fountain was gone-- every last, grimy stone. What was left was a small mound of rich dirt surrounded by a pool of tranquil water, disturbed gently by a few pink petals landing in it. Before them, a small sapling unfurled-- glittering magic nurturing it warmly. The pool grew steadily outwards, then spilled over new edges as a platform rose suddenly, carrying the sapling's island up and up. A new fountain emerged-- multi-leveled, topped with the beautiful little tree.

Clear, fresh water cascaded down the sides of each level, each platform slightly wider than the one above it, until it vanished down gutters that surrounded the sides of it. Gone was the stony tumor that ate away at the heart of the people. A symbol of growth and new beginnings gurgled lively in its place.

(As the magic light and smoke completely vanished, a relieved, "Yes, I can't believe it worked!" could be heard in the crowd. Julie knew it was Chuck, and imagined that Dutch was just as excited as the magician-- even if he didn't show it in such obvious ways.)

"The King Father would like to see all of you now, please." She swept her arm behind her towards the procession of soldiers that had lined up alongside the Northern path of the town square that led to the castle. Her well-trained troops had quietly got into position while the townspeople had been distracted with the smoke and magic of the new fountain blooming out of the ground. The lines of soldiers eventually gave way to the knights, forming a corridor that led directly to the throne room where her recovered father sat anxiously in the throne set aside for him a distance away from her own. She could imagine him fumbling the rings on his thick fingers, unsure of how his people were to react to him. The king Delvyrius had loved had finally come home, and he was ready to make amends with each subject who came to see him.

Julie closed her eyes and took in the momentous feeling of the day, and only opened them when she felt a sharp poke in her side. "Ow-- Tex, you're supposed to protect me, dude!" she winced exaggeratedly and laughed openly at his pout. "Well, how do you expect me to protect you when you're always running off on me like that? I'm superhuman, but not psychic."

"Give it a rest, Texas," Dutch stepped in, "It was a good surprise though, right?"

"It could have been better," oh no, there he goes, "If you had let me planned it! Julie, you gotta let Texas in on these things more. I mean, it was pretty good-- you did a great job getting magic boy there to make that awesome fountain thing with Dutch's sweet catapult machines! However, I think it would have been better with  _more_  fireworks, and maybe Mike and the other knights could have rode down with a huge carriage with the King Father in it! With unicorns to drag the entire thing!"

Julie rolled her eyes and caught Mike grinning at her sheepishly. He hooked an arm around Chuck's shoulders and shrugged-- wincing when Chuck gave him another punch in the arm. She looked around at her people, filing excitedly into an ordered line thanks to the soldiers to meet their recovered king. A soft hand slipped into her own and she found herself being hugged by Claire, who was squealing. "That was so, so, so great! I'm so happy to have been a part of this, it was just so, so, so awesome." She felt her crown tip off of her head as she was shaken up and down with Claire's hopping, but Dutch caught it and placed it back on her head with a soft nudge. Before she knew it, Texas had wrapped his big heavy arms around them all, dragging everyone into a tight group hug.

Tears were in her eyes when she screamed, "Tex, guys! Come on!" Her giggly protests were ignored though, and she felt her head tucked under Claire's chin as Dutch's arms encircled their shoulders.


End file.
